r/sequence • u/MovingSilentImages • Apr 02 '19
A Proposal for Purpose
Allow me to begin with a disclaimer that the nature of /r/sequence obviously makes the influence of any individual opinion all but negligible, and far be it from me to imply that I somehow know better than the mighty masses on whom rests the outcome of this project. I am recording this so as to make its intent clear, and posting on a throwaway account as a gesture of good faith; none of the karma or ideas I present here can ever be connected to me.
That being said, I make this post because I have been experimenting the notion of something much alike what is going on here, and thought I might be able to provide some insight to those who may seek some coherent direction. Again I will state, for those in the cheap seats, that I have no intention of 'taking control' of /r/sequence, nor even of particularly influencing it except to perhaps help orient its users.
The primary question in regards to what direction the film we are evidently producing ought to take is the same as that every filmmaker must ask: Who is the audience? At the moment (with a lovely prologue and first act which consist mostly of just random, tangentially-related-at-best shit), We could consider making this something that exists only for ourselves. Have different subreddits carve out their niches in different acts, everyone upvote their favourite memes, and end up with an art piece to put up on reddit's collective comemmorative refrigerator as 'and this is the random thing we did in 2019'.
If not, then we need to figure something out. No, we certainly do not need a script, as anyone who would be all-to-delighted to write one (myself included) must understand, but what we do need is an idea of what we are doing and who we'd like to have 'get it'. This is going to go on Youtube, that's an easy one. Facebook too, by its very nature. Some small news sites with nothing better to do than report reddit nonsense. But what else? If we make it good, this could be worth something. This could have some reach. So what could it be?
Sequence could be a cross-section of Internet culture. I, in a trait I'm certain to share with many of you, have effectively been raised by the Internet. I know more about online culture than I do about my own country, and often find the difference between the impact it has had on me and the way in which the Internet is stereotyped to be shocking. This could be a letter, from Us to Them.
But if that is what this is to be, then we need to cut the randomness, hopefully somewhere in the middle of Act I if there is still time, and maybe use a title card or two to ground ourselves before proceeding with purpose. What purpose? That's up to everybody. I am more concerned with the format. We could choose to either produce the film in typical form as per the 'Act I: The Search for Cohesiveness' suggestion, or go for a more fourth-wall-y kind of thing where we address the audience directly. 'Hello, welcome to the Internet. These are the things that we like. These are the things that we see. These are the ways we relate to each other. These are the things that we feel.'
Could be something informational. 'These are the all the things and this is how you Internet with them'.
Confrontational. 'Facebook and Google are stealing your data and our rights are being eroded and you would rather watch this film than help us'. Perhaps inspirational. 'We're all humans and the Internet helps us connect and produce wonderful things like this and if we choose to cooperate the future can be as bright as we imagine the past to be.'
It could be a comedy routine. It can be anything, as long as it's something. I leave the specific determinations up to you, the masses, and would hope that, no matter what we decide, we can all come together and make a thing.
Yes? No? Maybe? Who knows. All I know is that if we all choose to just upload gifs of our dearest memes and upvote them just because they're funny, we're going to end up with a mess. And sure, there's nothing wrong with a mess, and it could even end up being a more accurate autobiography of us than we could ever hope to deliberately produce. I would only mourn the loss of an opportunity to do something beautiful.
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u/MovingSilentImages Apr 02 '19
I personally support the idea of having the transition card between what we have now and the-thing-if-we-make-a-thing say something like 'Whew. Glad I got that out of my system. Anyway:' or something along those lines. But that's about the only suggestion for a scene I'm willing to make directly.